Posted by ace on October 20, 2003, at 22:14:08
In reply to Schizophrenia and ADHD, posted by SchizoADHD on October 20, 2003, at 11:37:34
> How do you distinguish between psychosis and non-psychotic wierd behavior?
Psychosis is where reality testing is not intact- what this means is that the person describes seeing/knowing/hearing phenomena which everyone else in his/her culture does not see/know/hear. The patient may believe that he is being stalked. For psychosis to be diagnosed, the patient must believe this to a delusional level, as opposed to an 'overvalued idea' level. In the delusional level the patient is 100% convinced he/she is being stalked, and cannot entertain any other idea. In an overvalued idea he/she can think 'maybe I am being paranoid'. A classical overvalued idea is where you feel you might have been laughed at on the street by some kids, but you can see this might not be the case.
> How do you distinguish between schizophrenia and ADHD?The former is characterised by the fact that reality testing is not intact. In ADHD reality testing IS intact, the person just displays a certain symptomatology (ie fidgeting, inattentiveness etc) which fits a certain label. I would recommend you get the DSM criteria for these two problems. But at the same time, don't hold too much faith in these labels.
> What medicines are best for a person with severe ADHD when he seems to get
> pushed over the edge with stress, anxiety, sleeplessness and "appears" to
> lose touch with reality?I don't believe a pure ADHD person ever loses touch with reality. If this is the case we might have ADHD in addition to a psychotic illness. The symptoms you describe would seem to respond to Zyprexa, Seroquel or an older antipsychotic. Or possibly antidepressant treatment and/with/or psychostimulant therapy.
> My 21 year old son had a traumatic birth, low APGAR scores,
> and apparently neurological injury. Mother was anorexic.What is the neurological injury, and how was it detected?
> He had an exceptionally low threshold for pain, whether it was vaccinations or
> any stress whatsoever. Attention deficit problems throughout grade school
> years. Home schooled. Needed lots of one on one attention. He was always
> good at learning or memorizing facts but could not sort out and analyze them.
> He continued to speak in high pitched voice long beyond when most boys voices
> change after puberty.
>
> His teen years became very difficult for him, overwhelming stress as friends
> went off to college and he could not even cope to get a job. At age
> 16 to 18 he began losing sleep and losing touch with reality.
> Bizarre behavior, running off, disorientation, etc. led to treatment
> and institutionalization.
What exactly was the bizarre behaviour? When institutionalized was he diagnoses as psychotic?> It seems clear-cut case of schizophrenia to doctors, but medicines have failed
> to correct it. Risperdal, zyprexa, and now clozaril.Rest assured there are PLENTY of meds out there. Just takes time to find the right one. Has he only tried these 3? Furthermore, did he give them an adequate duration of treatment (ie 3 months) at an adequate dose?
> Diagnosis of schizophrenia seems to be doctor's excuse for giving up on him.
> None of the meds help his attention and concentration.
> Strattera along with zyprexa helped a lot but doctor took him off both when relapse
> occurred.How long did this combo help for?
> Doctors don't seem to realize that his inability to concentrate and focus his attention
> is absolutely debilitating in itself without regard to the question of psychosis!!!Doctors are only human too. I would put a whole lot of faith in them either! Research the meds yourslef, research the symptoms, keep posting to sites like this etc. The best person to put faith in is yourself...easier said than done sometimes but!
> I need help sorting all this out.
>
> Recently I read about the National Academy for Child Development which apparently
> deals a lot with autism and other unique learning disorders.
> Would that route be useful, or would it be just another rabbit trail?I'm not sure if ADHD is in itself a learning disorder or it just makes learning harder. I would suggest getting him assesed again (if he hasn't already been by at least 3/4 doctors), getting a firm diagnosis (if this is possible), and then look at medication management. Concentrate on symptoms, not labels.
> Thanks for any input anyone can give!
I'm sorry I can't help more,Take Care,
Ace.
poster:ace
thread:271099
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20031008/msgs/271283.html